{"id":219,"date":"2008-02-21T13:22:37","date_gmt":"2008-02-21T13:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2008\/02\/21\/hewitt-speaks-of-social-change-future\/"},"modified":"2008-02-21T13:22:37","modified_gmt":"2008-02-21T13:22:37","slug":"hewitt-speaks-of-social-change-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2008\/02\/21\/hewitt-speaks-of-social-change-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Hewitt Speaks of Social Change, Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Amidon \u2014<\/em> In his Chapel talk Thursday, my friend and colleague Howard Hewitt discussed the events, people, and cultural phenomena that shaped his life and career. Paying particular attention to the explosion of change in the 1960s, Hewitt shared lessons he has learned that have relevance today.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI\u2019ve learned that the big things aren\u2019t that tough,\u201d he said. \u201cThe answer is usually \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no.\u2019 But the little things \u2014 and there are many of them every day \u2014 define you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the audio podcast<\/strong><\/a> of Hewitt’s talk.<\/p>\n

He went on to tell stories of the wisdom he\u2019s gained in the various phases of his life, from an eager college journalism student in the emerging days of Watergate through his career as a newspaper writer, editor, and publisher leading up to his arrival at Wabash as director of new media over three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve met some great Wabash men over the past three and a half years. They all seem to be surprisingly good with the little things,\u201d Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

To help put the sixties in perspective for the audience of students born in the late 1980s, Hewitt started with the Beatles and Robert Kennedy. He noted that the Beatles, 30 years after their last recording session, had the number one-selling CD in the United States in 2001 when \u201cBeatles 1\u201d sold 30 million copies.<\/p>\n

Giving the students critical thinking advice, he quoted Kennedy, whom he described as \u201can inspirational political figure\u201d who \u201cgave hope to many who had little hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream things that never were\u2026 and ask why not?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hewitt also silenced the audience when he told a story of the day the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan spoke in his Ball State University class \u201cA Colloquium on Violence.\u201d He said seven or eight African American students had come to the class after it had started and had to stand in the back. The Grand Dragon acknowledged the students by saying, \u201cOh, that\u2019s okay, you boys don\u2019t have to stand in my presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

You could hear a pin drop in the Chapel at that moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in very white, rural, southern Indiana, I had never witnessed anything like that,\u201d said Hewitt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a day in college that I\u2019ll never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hewitt also referenced the work he\u2019s done at Wabash for nearly four years, and recalled interviews he had with Rhodes Scholar Jeremy Robinson \u201904 (while he was teaching in Chicago\u2019s Harper High School) and alumnus John Pence \u201957. Pence, he noted, has enjoyed a career spanning service in the Navy, working with Lady Bird Johnson in the White House, and leading the revival of American Realism painting as a San Francisco art gallery owner. Hewitt also said Pence, who is a gay, has been the brunt of off-color jokes at College functions.<\/p>\n

“Think how many times in the last week you’ve heard ‘that’s so gay?<\/em>‘ …It is past the time that word is put to rest. Who are you offending? What impact will it have on their lives?”<\/p>\n

Hewitt ended his talk on an optimistic note, suggesting that America is, perhaps, on the verge of a decade of great change on the scale of the economic boom of the 1940s and the social changes off the 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think it\u2019s about to happen again,\u201d he said. \u201cJust look at the presidential race. The democrats had a Hispanic, a woman, and an African American in the race. For someone my age, that is astounding.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we on the cusp of significant change after decades of stalemate on all the big issues? And if we are, how will you play a part in it? \u2026Will you be a Wabash man who \u2018wonders why or dreams and asks why not?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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